Timeline
Trigger Words
Black Codes: Black Codes were special laws passed by southern state and municipal governments immediately after the Civil War. The laws denied many rights of citizenship to free blacks and were designed to control black labor, mobility, and employment, and to get around the Thirteenth Amendment that freed the slaves. The laws outraged northerners.
Compromise of 1850: The Compromise of 1850 was Congress's attempt to settle several outstanding issues involving slavery. It banned the slave trade, but not slavery in Washington, D.C.; admitted California as a free state; applied popular sovereignty to the remaining Mexican Cession territory; settled the Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute; and passed a more stringent Fugitive Slave Act.
Dred Scott: In the Dred Scott decision (1857), the Supreme Court ruled that blacks were not citizens and could not sue in a federal court, and that Congress had no constitutional authority to ban slavery from a territory, that, in effect, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The decision threatened both the central plank of the Republican party platform and the concept of popular sovereignty. Scott, a slave, had brought the lawsuit demanding his freedom based on his residence in a free state and a free territory with his master.
Emancipation Proclamation: The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863. It freed all slaves in areas then in rebellion against the United States (i.e., the Confederacy). It made emancipation a war goal and speeded the destruction of slavery.
Freeport Doctrine: During the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, Douglas declared that, even in the face of the Dred Scott decision, the people of a territory could exclude slavery simply by not passing the local laws essential for holding blacks in bondage. This Freeport Doctrine helped Douglas win reelection to the Senate, but it hurt his bid for the presidential nomination of the Democraatic party in 1860.
Kansas-Nebraska Act: In 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, a proposal to organize the remaining Louisiana Purchase Territory. Since the Missouri Compromise had banned slavery in that territory, his proposal to use popular sovereignty to determine the fate of slavery in the territory outraged northerners. The bill passed, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise, and northern opponents of slavery's expansion organized the Republican party.
Know-Nothings: The Know-Nothing (American) party was a nativist, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic political party organized in the early 1850s in response to the recent flood of Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Germany. The party enjoyed some success in local and state elections in 1854.
Ostend Manifesto: The Ostend Manifesto (1854) was a confidential dispatch to the U.S. State Department from U.S. ambassadors in Europe (specifically, Ostend, Belgium). It suggested that if Spain refused to sell Cuba to the United States, the United States would be justified in seizing the island. Northerners claimed it was a plot to expand slavery and the Manifesto was disavowed.
Radical Republicans: The Radical Republicans in Congress, headed by Thaddeus Stevens and Benjamin Wade, insisted on black suffrage and federal protection of the civil rights of blacks. They gained control of Reconstruction in 1867 and required the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment as a condition of readmission for former Confederate states.
Reconstruction Plans: In December 1863 Abraham Lincoln announced his Reconstruction Plan. He declared that as soon as any seceded state formed a accepted presidential decisions on the subject of slavery and took oaths of allegiance to the Constitution, they would be readmitted to the Union. By the end of the Civil War Arkansas and Louisiana had established governments based on these terms. Radical Republicans opposed Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan because it did not ensure equal civil rights for freed slaves.
After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, the new president, Andrew Johnson, issued his own Reconstruction Plan. He announced that on the ratification of the 13th Amendment Southern states would be re-admitted into the Union. This upset Radical Republicans and impeachment proceedings were began against him.
Wilmot Proviso: In 1846 Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot introduced an amendment (proviso) to an appropriations bill that provided for banning slavery from any territory the United States might acquire from Mexico as a result of war. It never passed Congress, but the Proviso generated a great debate on the authority of the federal government to ban slavery from the territories.
DionKim.
Compromise of 1850: The Compromise of 1850 was Congress's attempt to settle several outstanding issues involving slavery. It banned the slave trade, but not slavery in Washington, D.C.; admitted California as a free state; applied popular sovereignty to the remaining Mexican Cession territory; settled the Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute; and passed a more stringent Fugitive Slave Act.
Dred Scott: In the Dred Scott decision (1857), the Supreme Court ruled that blacks were not citizens and could not sue in a federal court, and that Congress had no constitutional authority to ban slavery from a territory, that, in effect, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. The decision threatened both the central plank of the Republican party platform and the concept of popular sovereignty. Scott, a slave, had brought the lawsuit demanding his freedom based on his residence in a free state and a free territory with his master.
Emancipation Proclamation: The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863. It freed all slaves in areas then in rebellion against the United States (i.e., the Confederacy). It made emancipation a war goal and speeded the destruction of slavery.
Freeport Doctrine: During the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, Douglas declared that, even in the face of the Dred Scott decision, the people of a territory could exclude slavery simply by not passing the local laws essential for holding blacks in bondage. This Freeport Doctrine helped Douglas win reelection to the Senate, but it hurt his bid for the presidential nomination of the Democraatic party in 1860.
Kansas-Nebraska Act: In 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, a proposal to organize the remaining Louisiana Purchase Territory. Since the Missouri Compromise had banned slavery in that territory, his proposal to use popular sovereignty to determine the fate of slavery in the territory outraged northerners. The bill passed, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise, and northern opponents of slavery's expansion organized the Republican party.
Know-Nothings: The Know-Nothing (American) party was a nativist, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic political party organized in the early 1850s in response to the recent flood of Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Germany. The party enjoyed some success in local and state elections in 1854.
Ostend Manifesto: The Ostend Manifesto (1854) was a confidential dispatch to the U.S. State Department from U.S. ambassadors in Europe (specifically, Ostend, Belgium). It suggested that if Spain refused to sell Cuba to the United States, the United States would be justified in seizing the island. Northerners claimed it was a plot to expand slavery and the Manifesto was disavowed.
Radical Republicans: The Radical Republicans in Congress, headed by Thaddeus Stevens and Benjamin Wade, insisted on black suffrage and federal protection of the civil rights of blacks. They gained control of Reconstruction in 1867 and required the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment as a condition of readmission for former Confederate states.
Reconstruction Plans: In December 1863 Abraham Lincoln announced his Reconstruction Plan. He declared that as soon as any seceded state formed a accepted presidential decisions on the subject of slavery and took oaths of allegiance to the Constitution, they would be readmitted to the Union. By the end of the Civil War Arkansas and Louisiana had established governments based on these terms. Radical Republicans opposed Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan because it did not ensure equal civil rights for freed slaves.
After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, the new president, Andrew Johnson, issued his own Reconstruction Plan. He announced that on the ratification of the 13th Amendment Southern states would be re-admitted into the Union. This upset Radical Republicans and impeachment proceedings were began against him.
Wilmot Proviso: In 1846 Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot introduced an amendment (proviso) to an appropriations bill that provided for banning slavery from any territory the United States might acquire from Mexico as a result of war. It never passed Congress, but the Proviso generated a great debate on the authority of the federal government to ban slavery from the territories.
DionKim.
Four Worlds
Social
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Economic
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Political
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Cultural
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Primary Source Documents
"The Governing Passion of My Soul"
In this piece, Garrison, one of the fiercest abolitionists in history, speaks in the city of Charleston, South Carolina. South Carolina used to be a stronghold for slavery, and now he is speaking there in the aftermath of Sherman's march to the sea that pillaged and crippled southern infrastructure.
He believes that he and Lincoln are two of a kind, and they've reached a level of understanding as brothers in belief. Little does he know that on that very day, Lincoln would be shot while watching a play. Garrison believes so firmly in freedom that he says slavery should exist nowhere as long as an american flag flies, because that stands for freedom. And slavery is the exact opposite of that.
John H.
He believes that he and Lincoln are two of a kind, and they've reached a level of understanding as brothers in belief. Little does he know that on that very day, Lincoln would be shot while watching a play. Garrison believes so firmly in freedom that he says slavery should exist nowhere as long as an american flag flies, because that stands for freedom. And slavery is the exact opposite of that.
John H.
"Proclamation of Thanksgiving"
This document is the speech that Lincoln gave, which basically told Americans not to fret, and that everything was going fine. Their economy is growing, their population is slowly growing, despite all the tragic losses they had during the war, and that they should just basically be thankful for how well things are going considering the circumstances they are living in. This speech is significant because it led the way to what we should be feeling on our national holiday, Thanksgiving, and kind of was used as a piece of moral support to the North, and held the Union together.
Dion K.
Dion K.
"Reconstruction"
This source talks about the horrible Memphis riots that happened where many black men were killed for no good reason and did not get a second chance. They were brutally murdered by the white men for unjust reasons of talking too loudly at night. The rumors that spread around after the riots were getting worse. The Riots happened in the morning too and they were just as bad. Not only were the black people shot, but they were shot countless times, stabbed, and cut completely open. It was a bloody battle for a small unagreement between a police officer asking some to quiet down at night. Innocent black were were shot as they were trying to go home after working long hours. Most of the bodies that were killed were all black men and women, and maybe a few white people here and there.
Kelly B.
Kelly B.
"Dred Scott v. Sanford
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=29
This document shows the final resolution of this court case, where the slave who is suing his master for freedom is denied the right to sue because he is property and not a citizen. This is significant because it lowered the status of slaves to a new low while outraging abolitionists who had worked so hard for slave free states, as now slaves could be bought into any state as long as they came from a slave state.
AK
This document shows the final resolution of this court case, where the slave who is suing his master for freedom is denied the right to sue because he is property and not a citizen. This is significant because it lowered the status of slaves to a new low while outraging abolitionists who had worked so hard for slave free states, as now slaves could be bought into any state as long as they came from a slave state.
AK